Mass Media Funk

a
commentary on mass media stories about the scientific, the
paranormal, the supernatural, and anything else that yanks at my
eyebrows.

unintelligent design

November 29, 2007.
I watched the Nova program
"Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial" and just shook my head at
the displayed ignorance of former Dover school board members Bill Buckingham
and Alan Bonsell. I'm not talking about their religious beliefs (which are
quite archaic) but their
views on education and the Constitution. They think it's okay for government
agencies to require citizens to study the teachings of a particular
religious sect. It doesn't matter to them what the Constitution says or what
judges have ruled regarding the Establishment Clause. They know what's true
and what's good and that's all that matters. Or so they thought. Judge John
Paul Jones III ruled against them in the
Kitzmiller case and let them know
that he did not appreciate the way they lied and tried to deceive the court
about their motives and behaviors regarding the burning of a student art
work depicting human evolution from an ape-like ancestor and regarding a
creationist text, Pandas and People, that had been bought and placed
in the school library by Bonsell's father.*
The two were unrepentant. Bonsell still doesn't understand why his
anti-evolutionist stance shouldn't be taught in public school science
classes.
Buckingham is so deluded that he cursed the judge and projected many of
his own inadequacies onto the court.

After the Dover case was finished I wondered what the ID folks would do
next. They failed at repackaging creationism as science. The judge ruled
that ID is not science. It's a science stopper. It turns out that the ID
folks do have a plan. If at first you don't succeed, repeat the procedure
no matter how stupid you look. Turn now to Polk Country, Florida, for a
repeat of the Dover fiasco. At least two bloggers have written about
Florida's version of Buckingham and Bonsell known as Kay Fields and Tim
Harris. You might want to read what
Florida Citizens for Science
and
Pharyngula have to say about Dover's doppelgangers before reading what I
have to say about them.

Despite the ruling by a federal court that intelligent design is a
religiously motivated story and to teach it in a government-funded school
violates the Establishment Clause of the Constitution of the United States
of America, four of seven school board members in Polk county support
teaching ID alongside evolution in public school science classes.*
Actually, it wouldn't be taught alongside evolution because Florida's State
Standards do not use the term 'evolution.' Florida requires its students to
learn about "biological changes over time." The state board is considering
new standards that would mention evolution for the first time.

At a recent Polk country school board meeting, the board
listened without comment to Florida Citizens for Science members speak
against the proposal. However, one board member, Margaret Lofton, added her
voice of support to the testimony of an eighth-grade science teacher who
proclaimed living organisms are so complex that they must have been created
by some kind of higher force. Lawrence Hughes has taught at Union Academy in
Bartow for 16 years. "The laws of nature don't support change from one
organism to another organism," he asserted.*
Really? Maybe he meant to add "in my neighborhood."

Hughes told a local interviewer after the board meeting that "a lot of
evidence supports intelligent design." Really? Of course, Mr. Hughes
didn't say the evidence was compelling or of very high quality. His
testimony could be taken as evidence that at least some things in nature are
not so intelligently designed. Hughes also said that "the scientific evidence to
support evolution from apes is not there." One thing's for sure: the
ignorance and arrogance of Buckingham and Bonsell live on in Polk county,
Florida, as does contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law, and
contempt for science and reason. Whatever else one might say about
intelligent design, it sanctifies faith and belief, and belittles science
and reason.